Last week, Duke in New Yorker and Riverdance aficionado Tom Rourke presented his final project to the class. He is studying the development of the Celtic musical genre from the eighteenth century through today, along with Celtic music in New York City, and he is learning to play Celtic guitar. In the past few decades, guitar has become a part of the modern hybrid form Celtic Rock.

During the mid-1800s, New York City became a hotbed for Celtic music due to extensive Irish and Scottish immigration to the US. Reels, jigs, and marches abounded. Today, the NYC Celtic music scene is less vibrant, but good music can still be found in concert halls and at Celtic fiddle festivals. Also, the numerous Irish pubs around the City play fun, mostly hybrid rather than traditional, Celtic music nearly every weekend.

Listen some of Tom’s favorite Celtic tunes in the list on the left sidebar!!
Just press the PLAY button next to the song you want to hear and enjoy! Here’s a list of what’s posted: "Music for a Found Harmonium", "The Rogues of Scotland", "American Wake" from Riverdance, "Clueless" by Wolfstone, "Merry Blacksmith, Swallow’s Ta" by Irish Descendants, "When I’m Up" by Great Big Sea, and "Legend of the Celtic Fiddle" by Wolfstone. Also, I threw in a couple of my own Flogging Molly tunes ("Drunken Lullabies" and "Another Bag of Bricks"), they count as Celtic too, right?

Listen to the tracks and let us know what you think!!! (again, the celtic songs are on the left sidebar. on the right sidebar, you’ll find some pretty sweet Brazilian tunes, [title of show] tracks, and, of course, Billy Joel’s "New York State of Mind").